WordPress comes with a visual post editor which is nice, but there are certain things that it can not do. Creating tables is one of them. Tables are an important tool to sort and present data in an understandable format. Even though you can create tables by manually writing HTML and CSS inside your posts, it is not a feasible option for many specially if they lack the HTML and CSS knowledge. In this article, we will show you how to add tables in WordPress posts and pages. Best of all, you don’t need to know any HTML or CSS to add tables in WordPress using this tutorial.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
First thing you need to do is install and activate TablePress plugin. Once activated, the plugin adds a TablePress menu item in your WordPress admin.
To create a new table click on Add New Table. This will take you to Add New tab. After giving your table a name and description, choose the number of rows and columns you need. Don’t worry, you can always add/remove columns and rows from your table when entering data or by editing the table later. Click Add Table button when you are done.
Now you will reach Edit Table screen. This is the table editor where you can add data to your table. You can also add and remove columns or rows. All rows and columns can be dragged and rearranged. Once you have created the table, it is time to add this table into a post.
Open an existing post or create a new post to enter the table. If you are using the visual editor, then you will see the tables icon in your visual editor. Pressing the button will open a pop up showing your tables. Press Insert Shortcode button next to the table you want, and it will add a shortcode to your post.
If you do not use the visual editor, then you can simply insert the shortcode manually. Click on the TablePress menu item, and it will show you the list of tables you have created. Take your mouse over to the table you want to add. Click on Show Shortcode, and this will open a pop-up window with the table shortcode. Copy the shortcode and paste it in your post wherever you want to insert the table.
That’s it. It is this easy to create and add tables in your WordPress posts. You don’t have to write a single line of HTML or CSS. If you want to customize the look and feel of the table, then there is an option for that (you would need to customize the CSS for this part).
This plugin can also import data from a csv file, json file, an HTML table and json formats. You can also export all your tables in CSV, HTML, and JSON formats. For more usage instructions check out the official TablePress Documentation.
Great article and great plugin. Straight and to the point. Thanks very much.
Glad you liked our article
Hi
I have installed the tablepress plugin.
i have issue for user capability. In the user role plugin, i haven’t granted permission to “edit_other_user_tables”. But my contributor user role can still edit other’s table and delete it as well.
How should i avoid access to other’s table?
You would want to reach out to TablePress to see if there is a built-in or recommended method for preventing editing of other tables.
Great article.. how can we make parent child in this ? like 1st column’s 1st cell is parent cell and next to it we have information for it’s child info.. like three rows are need to be explained for that 1st cell next to it
Sir when we click on the TablePress option in Visual editor then only list of table is showing in front of me. No Table creation option is available in Visual Editor. What should I do for create a new table in Post editor?
Thanks for the video.
What would you recommend to embed a formatted Excel sheet and collect data from registered WP users? (Like monthly usage reports, and the excel sheet also calculates the quarterly/yearly usage)
HI
Thank you for the video. I have created my table and chose Insert Image in one of the cells. It did let me choose the image but it then entered the URL to it rather than the image itself. Have I missed out a step??
Thank you.
Louise
Awesome Share, thank you!
This is a nice article boss.
Thanks for sharing.
But I do have a question.
Is there no plugin I can install that can bring the insert table option into the icons on my wordpress post?
Thanks as I await a reply
I want to add a table of specification in which first column is same for all post and second column is different.
How can I add this type of table in post??
It would be very nice if, in the article about TAblePress it said that you have to upgrade to a business plan to use a plugin!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Susan,
You are probably using WordPress.com. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Is there any way to bold some lines of text in the table? Its all plain text, wish there was an easy way to add bold text
just add an html text at the word
Actually, you can use CSS if you are ok with it. Use The words you want to emphasize …
Thanks a million for this plugin. All i needed was to prepare the list on excel and import it into wordpress.
Sweet and time saving tool.
Bless you guys for this piece
Hi, I would like to create links in the table that forward to another page and pass the row number through or any field from the row. How would I do this?
Options I can think of which are not straight forward
1) Use localStorage\sessionStorage
2) Pass the value in the URL but then the next page needs to read this on load – maybe not a bad idea ?
Wow! such a fantastic tool!! BUT: the colors are so pale I cant see a thing?? How can I change the colors fo rows/columns?
Thank you……This is helpful to me up to some extent. I satisfied with your post.
Think this only works for users of WordPress.org. Is there any similar guide for those like me who use WordPress.com especially where I can use a coloured background to the cells in a table?
Hello
I was trying to make an interactive table similar to this that would use a query picking data from a database.
I am using wordpress with a mysql/phpmyadmin database.
My query works in phpmyadmin but does not show values in wordpress?
SELECT * FROM `MyTablename` WHERE 1
Do i need to use a list or print command or database name?
I am having the same issue with you. Did you find a way to this already?
I would definitely recommend this plugin. A reminder to blogger when moving from one hosting service to another: don’t forget to back up the tables. There’s no way to recover the data. And if you know how can you share the info.
I recently was struggling to figure out how to add good-looking tables so this will be very helpful, thank you for publishing this.
You are welcome
How to create tables on tag/category page
Hi guys,
Thank you very much for support.
This tablepress is interesting.
I was looking a system to do something like that:
In i have a table with some information and colums. table1 for example.
I want when i press some region in my map, i can load an url, like /map#section
Can i do something like load same table in another order? by some colum o something? instead of click in a column, click in a region and load the same url but with the “#” of this table in the order required.
Thank you very much for support.
Thought about updating the screenshots on this article?
Thanks WP. You guys are the best! 4.5stars
Thanks for the info. I was wondering if the shortcode will have any SEO value. Is it likely that a table displayed with a shortcode will appear in Google Featured Snippet?
How to show grid lines in TablePress???
Many thanks. This made things so clear.
Great article. Thank you very much. Easy to install and understand to use. Cheers!
Good table plugin but not mobile friendly.
The table right side get clipped in mobile view.
Hey
Can someone show me, how I can create dynamic table?
I am new to WordPress. I like to maintain a database of gadgets say phones. I want an interface for me as admin to enter the specs and a picture of the item. For users, they will have the option to filter by brand and also compare 2 or more of these gadgets in a table format. They should also query an item and see all the specs in a table format. Please advice as to how this can be easily managed or maybe you have an article already for this!?
thanks
Amazing people don’t know how to use
and have to use a plugin. Sigh.
That is nice thing to learn and gain.. nice blog
Please, other readers, don’t be to harsh with me (especially using the R word). I am very new to all of this and feel successful in creating my first table. Now, how do I change the look and feel of the text in the table? I am using it to link to materials contained further on the page and highlight important pieces.
You need to use CSS. There’s a bit of a learning curve to all this (in your case, you might want to style the table, rows, table cells, paragraphs in table cells, links, hover effects etc etc), so only start if it’s really important.
I just lost a Table that I created using Tablepress. I don’t know how it was deleted, but I also just found out that there is no way to recover a deleted table. Since I don’t know how the table was deleted, I am worried about relying on Tablepress.
If you have a backup plugin in place then you can recover your table by restoring to an earlier backup.
We don’t think it is a plugin issue.
Great! Great! Just what I was looking for! Thanks a million
Is it me or WordPress is retarded? I mean any WYSIWYG editor can do a table on the fly these days, but the biggest CMS can’t? I must be missing something here, but using a plugin or iframes is so much trouble for a simple table… I’ll code it myself.
David,- I am with you. I dont get it. My first HTML editor back in 1998 had tables…. how come it has become easy to make a CMS based website, but you cant make a table…. Hellooooooo!!
Hi David,
I initially wanted to code it in myself, but wordpress kept formatting my table all over the place. Is there a specific was to use HTML in a page?
Many Thanks
I copied a table from Word into WordPress and the code is neat and clean. It works well. Now I want to try the same table with the FooTable plugin to make it responsive, althought it already is responsive in a way. Thought that a webdesigner keeps the material on the local computer anyway and thus can make changes in Word and replace the table in WP. This might be cheating but it works. Sirje
TablePress is an amazing plugin.
Thank you for this post.
Actually today I downloaded it and already donated some money to their team.
Have a fantastic day everyone.
Use it with FooTable to make it Responsive. They both support each other. Perfect!
Hi,
Is there any way to remove the table lines from showing?
The problems with plugins like this is that if you ever abandon the plugin the content linked to that plugin is busted across your entire site.
While very slick plugin I try to minimize my database dependency on them as much as possible.
Neal, you are right about that. However, TablePress uses custom post types for tables. This means your tables are stored in the database even if you deactivate the plugin. You can still export the data.
Hello Wpbeginner Team,
Is it possible to call script in same way ?
For ex. I have 1000 different scripts for 500 different post.
I want to call 2 table in each post and in that table Want to run script not text so Is it possible to call two scripts in table ?
Thanks for this! what resources can I use to create a table in which my clients can log in and post the prices of items they want to either buy and sell and which remains visible to the public
Thanks for helping me find the plugin.
I’m interested in adding a table to a form or page. So if a user goes to the page, he can add the Quantity in the cells and at the bottom of the form he can send the table to me.
Basically it would be a really simple order page without any payment options.
how many table we can add in a wordpress without using plugin
I’v been trying to insert a table in a blog post by using the tablepress plug in. Suddenly, the word Edit inside a pair of brackets has been appearing in the lower left corner of each page of my web site. I can’t get rid of it. Do you know how I can fix this?
Many thanks!
Pierre
Exactly what I needed to create my press page. You rock.
i want to add simple tables anyone knows how to add ?
this is awesome, helped me tremendously
superb… i just install it after reading this post… i am having some issues when i go for mobile preview… lets see, overall great plugin and post (Y)
How to add Subscribe form like yours??
Thanks
Wow! I love this plugin. Thank you!